Steven
Philip Jones has spent most of his life living in eastern Iowa. Steven has
written fiction novels for adults and young adults, comic books, graphic
novels, radio scripts, non-fiction, and advertising pieces. Steven has also
taught courses in comic book writing and enjoys mentoring other writers as well
as editing. A graduate of the University of Iowa, he majored in Journalism and
Religion and was accepted into Iowa's prestigious Writers' Workshop MFA Program
in 1990. Some of his comic book work includes adaptations of Sherlock Holmes,
Dracula and H.P. Lovecraft, Talismen, and his creator owned series, Street
Heroes.

Aldin
Baroza is an animation storyboard artist and comics artist and has comics
published by Caliber and Slave Labor Graphics including the acclaimed series,
Tales from the Heart. He work has also been featured in Tokyopop’s Rising Stars
of Manga as well as The Asian American Comics Anthology. His Rose Madder is a
creator owned series. He has also storyboarded, and worked as a storyboard director
and assistant director on various animated television shows, including Hey,
Arnold!, Rugrats, Rocket Power, Family Guy, American Dad, Squirrel Boy, Sit
Down, Shut Up, and Napoleon Dynamite, and Futurama, and was nominated for an
Annie Award in 2008 for storyboards on The Replacements. He is currently
working as a director on Axe Cop, High School USA!, Golan the Insatiable, and
Major Lazer for the Fox network’s Saturday night animation block.

AVAILABLE AT:​

A
new hero. A hero that has tasted the stench of evil’s darkness yet has also
touched the goodness in men’s hearts. A hero that rewards as well as punishes. A
hero that battles street crimes as well as that which crosses supernatural
dimensions.

The
hero is NIGHTLINGER and the shadows are his domain. And joining him is his sexy
assistant, Myke who keeps Nightlinger embedded in the realm of humanity.

From
one troubled person to the next the plain black business cards with the gold
lettering are passed.

"I
had a problem like yours once," the donor confesses. "This card got
me out of it."

There
is only an address on the card, to the Haunted Bookshop in Minneapolis, where a
fat man named Stick sits behind the counter. This fat man will patiently listen
to your tale of woe, may even ask you a question or two, but in the end all he
will do is wish you well, leaving you nothing to do except to go home. Sometimes
nothing happens to rectify a problem; more often than not, the predicament is
resolved. Permanently. In the latter case a letter appears in your mail
requesting a small donation to support the Haunted Bookshop. Most folks are
only too happy to comply.

For
a while after your predicament is resolved you may carry the card around in
your wallet or your purse. You might even forget it is in there. Until one day
when someone tells you their tale of woe, and you instinctively reply, "I
had a problem like yours once."

Underneath
the streets and sewer-lines of Hull is buried the remains of Universal City, a
township that thrived outside frontier Minneapolis over a century ago, most of
its Victorian homes and shops where destroyed in a range fire that swept across
Minnesota in 1897. The enterprising people of Minneapolis saw the opportunity
to expand their borders and annexed Universal City, building right over
whatever survived the fire. If you ride one of the select man-lifts down far
enough underground it will bring you to the grave that is Universal City, where
the sky is made up of rafters and concrete and steam pipes; where empty trolley
cars occasionally roll by vacant structures; and where on some nights, lights
burn inside the old Universal City library where Feril Nightlinger tinkers,
builds, studies and hides away when he wants or desperately needs to be alone. It
is down here, it should be mentioned, that those plain black business cards
with the gold lettering are printed up.

This
edition compiles the two comic issues from Caliber’s Gauntlet line plus a short
story as well as two back up stories staring Vanguard.